A Lenten Question ...

We're already halfway through Lent, and it has been an interesting Lent for me, as it was last year.

I have a Lenten question for my Orthodox readers...

As some of you may know, I work with my hands for a living, often doing very heavy physical labour. Because of this, I can't function without four meals a day. Heavy meals, heavy on protein, heavy on starches.

If I don't eat enough, my legs get wobbly, and I feel faint and dizzy. And I am afraid that beans just don't cut it.

Now, I am sure that I am not the first Orthodox to face heavy labour and Lent at the same time... however, I have no "working man" models of Orthodox piety in my immediate circles. My parish consists almost solely of intelligentsia, with the occasional service industry worker thrown in.

So what do labourers do in other parts of the Orthodox world? What did Orthodox do in Holy Russia? in 19th century Greece, Serbia, etc.?

I am truly curious.

- V.